Academic research should focus on industrial issues: FPCCI

LAHORE: Academic research should focus more on industrial issues. All the countries where research, academia and science are linked to industry developed more rapidly than others.

“We believe that solid industry-academia linkage is an essential tool to tackle the key economic challenges of Pakistan. We have seen that the countries with effective industry-academia linkage have higher productivity and competitive economies.”

These views were expressed by Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Regional Chairman Muhammad Nadeem Qureshi while addressing the members of FPCCI regional standing committee on “Industry-Academia Linkage” on Monday at the FPCCI Regional Office in Lahore.

He said the nation still needs to fully realise the fruits of developing such linkages. Several countries are working on formalising diverse approaches to connect the university-industry links with the overall national policy framework to set up a conducive environment for research and innovation. “We need to emulate their footsteps.”

Nadeem Qureshi said that the Industry-academia linkage is imperative for the innovation and growth of the country. It can save expensive foreign exchange by substituting imports and reducing the import bill. He said it promises greater employment opportunities for the youth as well, adding that the universities should also function as an entrepreneurial hub to engage directly in economic development through enterprise spin-off.

He said that the falling productivity and stagnant exports also call for establishing such linkages effectively. It is needless to mention that HEC has to play a pivotal role in this connection in close liaison with FPCCI and leading chambers of commerce of the country.

Qureshi said that the country's economic challenges needed tailor-made and workable solutions and that was possible only through solid academia and industry linkage.

He said that there was no shortage of resources in Pakistan, but it was far behind in the economic race because we had failed to tap these resources properly. They said that in the developed economies, there was a strong linkage between academia and industry and Pakistan today also needs to adopt that pattern to overcome its multiple issues.

Umer Saleem, Convener Committee, Abrar Ahmed, Dy Convener, Malik Ghulam Sarwar, Programme Coordinator (Research & Innovation Wing) of HEC, Prof Dr Farah Rauf Shakoori, Syeda Rozy Rizvi, Prof Sajjad Haider, Prof Kanwal Ameen, Dr Samia Raheel Qazi, Iftikhar Ahmed, Prof Dr Nadeem Ahmed and others also attended the meeting.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022